As a general rule, I’m a big fan of the PRS. They send me money when my music is played on the radio, they send me a portion of the ticket price when I do gigs etc. I like them.
However, This story in the Macclesfield Express is just mad – apparently music shops now have to pay a PRS licence if they want people to be able to try out guitars, cos an 11 year old kid playing Sweet Child O’ Mine really badly in a shop is public performance.
That’s nuts. Proper nuts. Making them pay if they play the radio or CDs in the shop is fine – that’s the same for any shop that plays music. But for demoing guitars?? Who are they hoping to benefit? Do the shop owners have to submit a play list ‘today’s songs – 20, minute-long version of smoke on the water; Sweet Child O’ Mine – intro played 9 times, close enough to be copyrightable, 3 of those. etc.’
Come on, PRS, that’s not a proper law. Spend your time and energies elsewhere. I like you, I really do, but this is just silly. Running an instrument shop is a precarious enough job at the best of times – don’t make it harder.
That makes the phrases ‘No Seinfeld’ or ‘No Stairway!’ even more pertinent – in that it could extend to a ludicrous amount of music shop faves – divided equally between Flea, Jimi, Zep and the lovely Deep Purple – I totally agree that is an utterly cynical law and positively barking…